Graham, a Santa Cruz resident since 1995, put himself on the Bay Area map with his award-winning TV series "Bay Area Backroads," which featured Northern California's hidden gems. KRON produced the series for 28 years.

"The concept was that we live in this great spot, but we're all in such a hurry, that we drive by things without looking and don't even notice what's around us," Graham told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2008.

STARTS IN INDIANA

Graham was born Gerald Granowsky in Indianapolis. He changed his name for professional reasons at his first television job as a staff announcer for TV stations in Evansville, Ind., and Binghamton, N.Y.

Graham moved from Binghamton to New York City, where he worked as a radio news writer for Metromedia's WNEW. After rising through the ranks at the station, Graham bought and ran his own radio station WGRG with Bernie Ruttenberg and David Gordon. He joined then now-defunct San Francisco radio station KSAN in 1975 as general manager, then hosted the TV show Pacific Currents on KPIX Channel 5. He also anchored weekend news for KRON.

Throughout his career, Graham maintained a strong sense of humor. He even got demoted for having an on-air laughing attack in Binghamton, a fact his son Jefferson Graham said doesn't surprise him.

"He liked to laugh ... the fits continued for years," Jefferson said. "There were many instances where the laughter was contagious, and we just laughed and laughed, uncontrollable, with tears, falling on the floor."

Once he moved to Santa Cruz, Graham wrote eight travel guidebooks with his wife Catherine Graham, including "Bay Area Backroads," "More Bay Area Backroads" and "Bay Area Backroads Food and Lodging Guide."

"It was terrific in the sense that we could each write a section, then edit each other's work," Catherine said. "We called the books our first babies. We couldn't remember who came up with what line after a while."

GAINS CELEBRITY

Even when Graham became well-known for his work in television, he always remained humble, said Bob Klein, the executive producer of "Bay Area Backroads."

"In the Bay Area for a while, he was it, he was the anchor," Klein said. "But it wasn't like people were running up for his autograph; it was like, 'Hey, Jerry.'"

Graham was known in Santa Cruz for his television column for the Sentinel, which he wrote in the early 2000s.

"He was loved in the community, and he loved Santa Cruz," Jefferson said.

In addition to teaching English as a second language at the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz, he also played basketball every Sunday in Santa Cruz and tennis twice a week at the Chaminade. Over 6 feet tall, he won a gold medal with his basketball team the Nor Cal Sharks at the California State Senior Olympics in 2009.

"His local team was important to him," Catherine said. "It was going to the church of basketball."

A lifelong dog lover, Graham took his 5-year-old dog Chicolini to the park every afternoon.

"I am a cat person who married a dog person," wrote Catherine, also a Sentinel columnist, in an article published Aug. 4, 2002. "Before we met, Jerry went public with his disdain for felines on his San Francisco Bay Area TV show called 'Pacific Currents,' with a segment called 'Why I Hate Cats.'"

After meeting in 1984 in San Francisco, the two married in 1986, continuing to build a strong relationship throughout their 27-year marriage.

"He started this thing just recently where every morning, he'd sing a song I didn't know," Catherine said. "We'd gone through at least 100, and he still had more in his head."

FAMILY MARKS BIRTHDAY

Jefferson visited his father during the weekend for an early birthday celebration. Graham would have turned 79 Tuesday.

"I was sitting with him on Saturday and Sunday morning, and he was reading the Santa Cruz Sentinel," Jefferson said. "He read it every morning."

Catherine planned to take her husband out for a pedicure on Tuesday, as well as bake him "fudgy" brownies.

Graham decided to retire at age 60 to help raise his daughter Lily Graham, now 22. While he had a long and prolific career, Graham always put his three children first, his wife said.

"I just had to go through his wallet for filling out paperwork, and it's crammed full of pictures of Lily," Catherine said. "I don't know how they all fit in there."

And while his family was of utmost importance, Graham always knew how to connect with anyone, Jefferson said.

"He was Jerry Graham, always the smartest, smoothest guy in the room," his son said, "the one who could start a conversation with anyone and make it interesting, and have them laughing and enjoying the company."